Hi, Ardith Hinton!
I read your message from 05.06.2019 23:21

 AH> On one occasion while I  was  visiting  my  mother  in  hospital  I
 AH> noticed that her room mate seemed to be grumbling  to  herself.  My
 AH> mother confided that..  having been scheduled for surgery the  same
 AH> day...  this woman got up early,  spent at least an  hour  applying
 AH> makeup & painting her nails & whatnot,  and was informed as soon as
 AH> their nurse entered the room that she would have to revert  to  the
 AH> factory settings.  When she complained  to  my  mother,  my  mother
 AH> answered "How would the doctor know if you were turning  blue  with
 AH> that stuff on?" :-))

Ahem ;), besides the absence of the comma before the quotation marks, I
wanna remark again that inside of those marks there is the direct speech.
So, theoretically, it should be either

My  mother answered, "How will the doctor know if you are turning blue
with that stuff on?"

or (as the indirect speech)

My mother answered her that the doctor would not know if she was turning
blue with that stuff on.

Bye, Ardith!
Alexander Koryagin
english_tutor 2019

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